Visa and Mastercard suspend operations in Russia after invasion of Ukraine

On 5 March 2022, about ten days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the payment giants Visa and Mastercard announced they were suspending operations in Russia. The decision followed Western sanctions on Russian banks and growing pressure on international companies to cut ties with Moscow.

In practice, cards issued by Russian banks stopped working outside the country, and foreign-issued cards could no longer be used in Russian shops and cash machines. Russians travelling abroad and those paying for foreign online services were hit first. Cards already issued by Russian banks continued to work inside Russia, because domestic transactions were handled by the national payment system, NSPK, which also runs the home-grown Mir card network.

The move was one of the most visible consequences of the sanctions for ordinary Russians. It pushed the authorities and banks to promote Mir and to look to partners such as China's UnionPay, with limited success abroad. Since then, the question of whether the two companies could ever return has resurfaced periodically in Russian discussion.